Alicia Keys hits Broadway

Photo by Carlos Alvarez/Getty ImagesSinger Alicia Keys performs on stage at the Royal Theater in January 2010 in Madrid, Spain.

Alicia Keys is going where Whoopi Goldberg, Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, and Will and Jada Pinkett Smith have gone before her.

She’s going to be producing a Broadway show.

It’s Lydia R. Diamond’s “Stick Fly.” If the title sounds familiar, that may be because “Stick Fly” was the 2007-08 season opener at the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton.

Diamond’s drama tells of an upscale African-American family that has a home on Martha’s Vineyard. One adult son is an affluent plastic surgeon, while the other is a not-yet-published novelist. Both bring their girlfriends for the weekend; that one is white will lead to complications.

The play will be staged by Kenny Leon, one of the comparatively few directors to have guided two Tony-winning revivals: “Fences” in 2010 and “A Raisin in the Sun” in 2004. He has yet to cast the show.

“Stick Fly” begins previews on Nov. 18 prior to a Dec. 8 opening at the Lyceum Theatre, 149 W. 45th St., New York City. Performances are Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7 p.m., Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets are $35 to $131.50. Call (212) 239-6200 or visit StickFlyBroadway.com.

Harris vs. Daly

Two Tony-winners will be butting heads this fall at the George Street Playhouse.

It’s the mother of a young Jewish bride against the mother of a Catholic young man in “It Shoulda Been You,” a new musical with book and lyrics by Brian Hargrove and music by Barbara Anselmi.

Tyne Daly — who won her Tony for playing Rose in “Gypsy” in the 1989-90 season — had already been announced to portray the mother of the bride. Now we know who’ll play her nemesis: Harriet Harris, who won a 2002-03 Tony for playing Mrs. Meers in “Thoroughly Modern Millie.”

A Tony-winner will be directing them, too: David Hyde Pierce, who won for “Curtains” and has a few Emmys for “Frasier,” too.

This is not Harris’ first Garden State appearance. Two years ago, she played the addled Dottie Otley in “Noises Off” at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, and quickly followed that up by portraying dipsomaniac Madame Dilly in Paper Mill’s “On the Town.”

“It Shoulda Been You” plays Oct. 4 to Nov. 6 at the George Street Playhouse, 9 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick. Performances will be Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m., Thursdays and Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m. Ticket prices to be determined. Call (732) 246-7717 or visit GSPonline.org.

Beastly News

Did you miss seeing “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast” at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center last week? Perhaps you found no tickets available, for the 1994 Tony-nominee did sell well — so well, in fact, that it’s coming back to Jersey.

Granted, the return engagement isn’t around the corner. The musical — which wound up as Broadway’s eighth longest-running show — will play May 4 to 6. The engagement won’t be at NJPAC this time, but at the State Theatre at 15 Livingston Ave. in New Brunswick.

Nevertheless, tickets will be available on Friday for the performances that will take place on May 4 at 7 p.m., May 5 at 1 and 7 p.m., and May 6 at 1 and 6 p.m. Tickets are $35, $47, $57, $62 and $77. Call (732) 246-7469 or visit StateTheatreNJ.org.